Cyprus Preps Hail Mary Plan to Avoid Euro-Zone Break

3/22/2013 9:29AM

Cyprus lawmakers are locked in an eleventh hour bid to prevent the collapse of the country's banking system, and a possible break from the Euro Zone. WSJ's Charles Forelle reports on The News Hub. Photo: Getty Images.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... the the ... lawmakers are locked in an eleventh hour bid to prevent the collapse of the country's banking system ... and possibly be forced out of the euro zone ... WSJ's Charles Forelle joins me now from one minute when for Terrell thanks for joining us this morning ... to my ... so what's the latest effort on the ISE Cypress's bids to secure this critical financially ... it also receives about six billion euro Z visa come up with its six billion euros European authorities have promised it and if it can come up with six on its own ... they are scrambling to find a way to come up with six billion year as one solution is on the table now is take one of Cypress's most troubled banks that probably services most troubled bank ... split it up and winded down the lawmakers estimate that that could reduce by about ... three billion years or so ... aam the cash means that they have ... again Cypress is still short of money and desperate ... to find something before the banking system reopens next week and that really under the gun here mean they have ... very little time to get this that right in fact today they need to make key decisions ... in India to the banking system has effectively been close since last weekend Monday is a skillful bank holiday in Cyprus ... the European Central Bank however has said that an emergency lifeline that is keeping ... adding the Cypriot banking system afloat is going to be turned off on Monday ... that means if the banks are open on Tuesday something else needs be done ... on there's been a lot of ... and a slow moving on Cyprus this bill was requested in the middle of two thousand twelve has been a there's been a lot of discussion nothing has happened at the CBS focus the discussion ... by saying on Monday to switch gets turned on ... and how was the possibility that in fact papers will be forced to leave the euro zone ... well if it cannot come up with the money that it needs to that six billion year as ... I'm right it is a country's GDP of about eighteen billion euro so imagine ... I if the US of the GDP of fifteen trillion dollars or so as as to come up with five trillion dollars in a week and it's not a small task ... aam if they're unable to do that the options are very narrow and one of the only options perhaps to to save the banking system or to keep the country going is to say ... or to start printing our own currency prints of three pounds ... I'm in the in re start that way ... aam that's obviously a last ditch option that nobody particularly wants to take on this one is getting closer and closer as a resolution that appears this ... and what it really be that the fallout at that time in terms of other euro zone countries ... an hour early voting is a great video here that has taken a high of one of our ... Wall Street Journal ... colleagues on the team that thing and it's a great great stuff ... you know ... what it did there's a ... there's a big problem here which is that one of the primary Ted loses he could be broken which is that no countries Everest us to leave the euro zone the the euro zone has ... had through this three years of this crisis has made extraordinary efforts to keep Greece inside the euro zone ... to convince depositors in Spain and Italy investors in those countries government bonds that there's absolutely no risk of Spain and Italy leaving the euro zone ... this is supposed to be something that is off the table ... the euro zone is that hundreds of billions to try to make sure that it is ... and it's tiny Cyprus does that and it's broken it's very difficult to say what exactly that means ... I'm but it's certainly not good for Spaniards and Italians to watch ... their Cypriot peers lineup around the block on an ETN is and it would be even worse to see them you know have their Euro accounts converted into something else and withdrawn and parents from an op ed thank you Charles for Ally for joining us this morning with the latest privacy of it and press enter to continue to follow ... this story on WS J dot com throughout the debt